Chapter 5 : Sector analysis
to be hacked by nefarious actors , facilitating illicit transactions , having volatile valuations and the incompatibility lications for codified peer-to-peer transactions means the asset class continues to gain traction and maturity . said : “ Most cryptos have the potential to act as a currency when need be , but they also serve other intended ewarding miners , a stable store of value , a tamper-proof representation of real and virtual items , a means to
Scalability
The scalability ‘ trilemma ’ was identified by ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin , with crypto participants able to achieve security , decentralisation and scalability but never all at once . Scalability platforms help to increase the load of transactions and number of nodes in a network . An example is polygon and its role in developing ethereum infrastructure , by executing scalable smart contracts at a speed of 65,000 transactions per second . For comparison , visa handles 1,700 transactions per second , while bitcoin executes seven per second . Other scalability crypto assets include ripple and stellar .
Big data
Big data monetisation activities are carried out by networks which verify and create gateways for data to be brought within blockchains from external sources , including between different blockchains . Chainlink is one such example . Through ‘ oracles ’, it feeds real-world data into smart contracts so it can be transferred between blockchains and the outside world . Facilitating this is a network of data providers , node operators , smart contract developers , auditors and researchers .
Commodities
While at times correlated or sensitive to riskon or risk-off market settings and monetary policy movements , the nascency of crypto assets makes it difficult to pin them exactly to the movement of other assets over their relatively short lifespan . Being decentralised , with fixed white papers and gaining scale , some assets are now referred to as ‘ digital gold ’ or ‘ stores of value ’. Central among these is the largest crypto asset , bitcoin , which unlike fiat currencies is finite and unlike gold , can be transferred digitally across borders .
Virtual leisure
A more recreational use for crypto assets is as the preferred currency within the web3 and virtual entertainment spheres , such as transactions for non-fungible tokens ( NFT ), in the metaverse and within videogames . In the metaverse , ethereum-based token MANA allows participants to buy monetised content in virtual reality platform , Decentraland , including digital land . In gaming , ethereum-based SAND is the currency used for all in-game transactions in community-driven platform , The Sandbox .
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